OIL SPILL CONTINGENCY PLANNING FOR GEORGES BANK

1983 ◽  
Vol 1983 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-128
Author(s):  
Elmer P. Danenberger ◽  
R. Barry Eldridge ◽  
Marshall Crocker
Keyword(s):  
Rhode Island ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
Contingency Planning ◽  
Management Service ◽  
Georges Bank ◽  
Outer Continental Shelf ◽  
Marine Safety

ABSTRACT Lease Sale #42, held on December 18, 1979, provided the North Atlantic District of the Minerals Management Service (MMS) and the U. S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Office, Boston, an opportunity to develop oil spill contingency planning requirements for companies exploring for oil and gas on Georges Bank, one of the world's most productive fisheries. After extensive consultation with the Coast Guard's Marine Safety Office and Atlantic Strike Team representatives, Clean Atlantic Associates (CAA), an oil industry cleanup cooperative for the Atlantic outer continental shelf, received specific criteria regarding response times, sea-state capabilities, uptake rates, support vessels, storage capabilities, training, and drills. These criteria were developed with the assistance of a technical review board approved by the Commandant of the Coast Guard. CAA met the criteria by purchasing additional response equipment and further demonstrating the capabilities of existing equipment. Response equipment was maintained at two offshore locations to ensure that the specified six-hour response times could be achieved under normal conditions. The offshore response equipment was deployed by drilling personnel at offshore well sites. CAA and the Atlantic Strike Team successfully conducted a coordinated response exercise on July 30, 1981, in Rhode Island Sound. Additional training classes and a surprise offshore drill have been held subsequently.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTINGENCY MEASURES IN DETERMINING OUTER CONTINENTAL SHELF OIL AND GAS DEVELOPMENT

1981 ◽  
Vol 1981 (1) ◽  
pp. 571-575
Author(s):  
Raymond R. Emerson
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Environmental Risk ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Contingency Planning ◽  
Outer Continental Shelf ◽  
Production Potential ◽  
Oil And Gas Development ◽  
Site Specific ◽  
The U.S

ABSTRACT Oil spills are one of the major concerns associated with oil and gas development along the outer continental shelf. The U.S. Department of the Interior is presently planning lease sales at the rate of seven per year. Many of these leases are being proposed in areas where the risks associated with oil spills are difficult to assess. The major objective of the decisionmakers in this process is to select a leasing plan from the list of proposed blocks that will offer the maximum production potential within an acceptable level of environmental risk. This objective can be obtained with proper contingency planning which should include site-specific designs. A proposed leasing plan could be limited in its production potential by the habitats more vunerable to a potential oil spill. These areas are identified using a model system developed by the U.S. Geological Survey. In this model, the local meteorology and physical oceanography are coupled to produce trajectories of hypothetical oil spills. These trajectories, along with oil resource estimates, are used to establish overall probabilities of an oil spill contacting specific coastal areas and habitats. Using linear programming techniques, the blocks that can yield the maximum resource recovery within specified limits of environmental risk are identified. Site-specific contingency measures (such as stockpiles of cleanup equipment) concentrated at the more vulnerable habitats will allow the decisionmaker to accept a higher level of environmental risk and significantly increase the number of blocks that are suitable for leasing. A proposed lease sale area for the northeast Gulf of Alaska is used to demonstrate the importance of contingency planning in determining various levels of offshore oil and gas resource development.

OFFSHORE OIL SPILL EQUIPMENT EVOLUTION IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA—A SYSTEMS APPROACH?1

1983 ◽  
Vol 1983 (1) ◽  
pp. 205-209
Author(s):  
Lindon A. Onstad
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Southern California ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Management Service ◽  
Outer Continental Shelf ◽  
Offshore Oil ◽  
Response Capability

ABSTRACT Exploration of outer continental shelf (OCS) lands off Southern California has been expanding at a rapid rate for the past two years. Lease Sales 48, 53, and 68 have provided the impetus for this rapid development. The Bureau of Land Management has predicted several spills in excess of 1,000 barrels will occur as a result of these sales and subsequent exploration activities. Legitimate concerns have been raised by federal, state and local governments as well as numerous citizen groups concerning the ability of industry to respond adequately to a major offshore oil spill. As a result of these concerns, the California Coastal Commission has ordered a study and evaluation of the California Oil Spill Cooperatives with an objective of ensuring they will possess an adequate response capability. Concurrent with this study, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding concerning review of oil spill plans and equipment in OCS waters. With expanding geographic areas to cover, the cooperatives have begun to purchase new state-of-the-art equipment in hopes of satisfying the regulatory agencies and concerned groups. This paper examines the process of the federal government, state of California and industry in upgrading oil spill response capability in waters offshore southern California. The process is shown to have occurred systematically with a view toward the response system rather than individual pieces of equipment. Recommendations to California concerning acceptance of federal guidelines, joint reviews and use of dispersants are discussed.

STATISTICAL ESTIMATES OF SHORELINE OIL CONTACT IN THE GULF OF MEXICO

2005 ◽  
Vol 2005 (1) ◽  
pp. 547-551 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter R. Johnson ◽  
Zhen-Gang Ji ◽  
Charles F. Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Wind Field ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Ocean Current ◽  
Management Service ◽  
Outer Continental Shelf ◽  
Statistical Estimates ◽  
Level Of Concern

ABSTRACT As steward of the Federal offshore lands known as the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), Minerals Management Service (MMS), is responsible for balancing the Nation's search for commercial oil and gas with protection of the human and marine environments. The MMS regulates the development of mineral resources in an environmentally safe manner by analyzing environmental consequences of the OCS program prior to lease sales or approval of industry's plans. The Oil-Spill Risk Analysis (OSRA) model was developed by the DOI for the analysis of possible oil-spill impact from offshore oil and gas operations. The OSRA model produces statistical estimates of hypothetical oil-spill occurrence and contact from projected OCS operations. The model generates an ensemble of sea surface oil-spill trajectories by initiating thousands of oil-spill simulations at hypothetical spill locations to statistically characterize oil-spill risk in areas of prospective drilling and production and along projected pipeline routes. The hypothetical spills are initiated every day and move at the velocity of the vector sum of the surface ocean currents plus an empirical wind-induced drift of speed equal to 3.5% of the local wind speed, with a wind-speed-dependent direction (Samuels et al., 1982). The model generates oil-spill trajectories by integrating interpolated values of the wind and ocean current fields at intervals short enough to use the full spatial resolution of the ocean current and wind fields. The OSRA model, as applied to the Gulf of Mexico, uses 3-hourly ocean current fields over 7 years (1993–1999) generated by the Princeton Regional Ocean Forecast System (PROFS) (Oey et al., 2004). The PROFS is driven by synoptic winds, heat flux, and river flows. The wind field is based on the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts surface winds enhanced by observations from meteorological buoys and Coastal-Marine Automated Network stations. The same wind field used to force the ocean model is used to move the oil in the spill trajectories. As an example of environmental assessment, the OSRA model was used to estimate the spreading of oil spills by simultaneously modeling fractions of each spill, referred to as spillets. The spillets were used to calculate additional statistics, in particular, the length of coastline contacted by a large spill. The coastline was divided into equal length segments. Assumptions were made regarding what fraction of the spill (i.e., the number of spillets) that contacted a land segment would constitute a contact larger than the “level of concern.” Sensitivity of the analysis to key assumed parameters, such as the number of spillets and the level of concern, were tested.

CLEAN ATLANTIC ASSOCIATES: AN OIL SPILL CLEANUP COOPERATIVE FOR THE ATLANTIC OFFSHORE AREA

1979 ◽  
Vol 1979 (1) ◽  
pp. 229-236
Author(s):  
J. F. Hubbard ◽  
T. E. Allen
Keyword(s):  
Rhode Island ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Training Programs ◽  
South Atlantic ◽  
Outer Continental Shelf ◽  
Offshore Area ◽  
The North ◽  
Additional Equipment ◽  
Trained Manpower

ABSTRACT Clean Atlantic Associates was established by the petroleum operating companies with oil and gas leases in the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic areas of the outer continental shelf. As lease sales are held in other Atlantic OCS areas, Clean Atlantic Associates will expand into these areas. The purpose of this association is to provide a stockpile of equipment for member companies to use in the event of an oil spill emergency, and to provide trained manpower to maintain and operate the equipment. To date, about $1.4 million has been spent for containment and cleanup equipment for the Mid-Atlantic area. Another $2.9 million has been authorized for the purchase of additional equipment for the North and South Atlantic lease areas. A base has been established at Davisville, Rhode Island, for the Mid-Atlantic equipment already purchased. Additional bases will be established as needed. The organizational structure of Clean Atlantic Associates and the description and operation of the equipment stockpiled are discussed. New open-sea containment booms, boat spray systems, and modified skimming systems are described in detail. Also discussed are the contingency manual prepared to assist member companies in their planning and training programs, and the training programs held to help assure the availability of trained manpower.

scholarly journals An Improved Method to Estimate the Probability of Oil Spill Contact to Environmental Resources in the Gulf of Mexico

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhen Li ◽  
Walter Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Environmental Resources ◽  
Ocean Energy ◽  
Outer Continental Shelf ◽  
Socioeconomic Resources ◽  
The U.S

The oil spill risk analysis (OSRA) model is a tool used by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to evaluate oil spill risks to biological, physical, and socioeconomic resources that could be exposed to oil spill contact from oil and gas leasing, exploration, or development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Using long-term hindcast winds and ocean currents, the OSRA model generates hundreds of thousands of trajectories from hypothetical oil spill locations and derives the probability of contact to these environmental resources in the U.S. OCS. This study generates probability of oil spill contact maps by initiating trajectories from hypothetical oil spill points over the entire planning areas in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GOM) OCS and tabulating the contacts over the entire waters in the GOM. Therefore, a probability of oil spill contact database that stores information of the spill points and contacts can be created for a given set of wind and current data such that the probability of oil spill contact to any environmental resources from future leasing areas can be estimated without a rerun of the OSRA model. The method can be applied to other OCS regions and help improve BOEM’s decision-making process.

TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO STATE HAS GONE BEFORE1

1995 ◽  
Vol 1995 (1) ◽  
pp. 761-765
Author(s):  
William Boland ◽  
Pete Bontadelli
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Pollution ◽  
Task Force ◽  
Action Plan ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Incident Management ◽  
Incident Command ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Marine Safety

ABSTRACT The Marine Safety Division of the 11th Coast Guard District and the California Office of Oil Spill Prevention and Response are pursuing new avenues to assure that federal, state, and local efforts in California achieve the goals of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and the Lempert-Keene-Seastrand Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act of 1990. Coordination of the seven California area committees, publishing detailed area contingency plans, and the implemention of a memorandum of agreement on oil spill prevention and response highlight recent cooperative successes. In 1994 a joint Coast Guard/state/industry incident command system task force drafted an ICS field operations guide and incident action plan forms that meet National Interagency Incident Management System and fire scope ICS requirements.

M/V Kimton: A Case Study of The U. S. Coast Guard's Abandoned Vessel Program

2003 ◽  
Vol 2003 (1) ◽  
pp. 571-753
Author(s):  
Meridena Kauffman ◽  
David Mosley
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
Public Access ◽  
Fuel Oil ◽  
Oil Removal ◽  
Trust Fund ◽  
Waste Oil ◽  
Total Cost ◽  
Marine Safety

ABSTRACT In June of 2000, U. S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Office (MSO) San Juan conducted the Annual Abandoned Vessel Inventory and noticed an abandoned vessel grounded on a beach in Fajardo, Puerto Rico. Personal investigation revealed that the vessel held approximately 5,000 gallons of waste oil in the engine room, posing a pollution threat to the local public. In a thorough attempt to identify the owner, the MSO used the knowledge of local fishermen, the marine police and Department of Natural Resource. When the owner could not be identified, the Captain of the Port decided to use the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund to remove the threat of an oil discharge. Upon discovering that five marine batteries and filters had been hidden on board the vessel, it was determined that it was likely being used as a waste dumpsite. If it was indeed a dumpsite, the Coast Guard would then take control of the vessel, initiate salvage operations, and remove it from its location. Local contractors were hired in the first successful oil removal attempt, lasting two days. In April of 2001, the re-assessment was conducted and an additional 5,000 gallons of waste oil was again discovered on the vessel, confirming the belief that it was a dumpsite. A more in depth assessment was conducted, and another 10,000 gallons of fuel oil was discovered in the wing tanks. The second project commenced with a local environmental contractor hired to remove the 15,000 gallons of oil. Then a salvage contractor was hired to mechanically cut the vessel into scrap for disposal. During this time over 300 lbs. of commercial grade C-4 explosives and detonation cord were discovered in a hidden compartment in the aft end of the vessel. The total cost to the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund was approximately $700,000.00 and over 2,000 man-hours were spent to complete the project. This three month long abandoned vessel removal is considered an important success for several reasons. Not only did the Coast Guard remove a major pollution threat from the environment, but the municipality has also renovated the beachfront area and installed a boardwalk for public access.

scholarly journals Evolution of Contingency Planning in California – a Federal and State Coordinated Effort

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cassidee Shinn ◽  
Anna Burkholder
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Environmental Protection Agency ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
Contingency Planning ◽  
California Department ◽  
Joint Preparation ◽  
New Process ◽  
Contingency Plans ◽  
Sensitive Site

ABSTRACT U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), and California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) agreed to the joint preparation of oil spill contingency plans following the enactment of California and federal laws in 1990. With little guidance initially, six Area Committees embarked on a new process to create the first coastal Area Contingency Plans (ACPs) in 1992. In 2015, when emergency regulations to expand OSPR's jurisdiction statewide became effective, developing inland Geographic Response Plans (GRPs) became a top priority. Over the last 30 years, the ACPs have evolved into robust, nationally recognized planning documents, and response plans have expanded into inland environments. This paper will describe in detail the contributions and advancements in California oil spill contingency planning over 30 years. It will highlight OSPR's approaches for statewide consistency and coverage, interoperability between various state and federal plans, tools (including Geographic Information System (GIS) and various databases), improved sensitive site contacts and management, and lessons learned. It will also cover goals for future improvements in both marine and inland contingency plans.

OIL SPILL CONTINGENCY PLANNING IN THE BALTIC SEA

1989 ◽  
Vol 1989 (1) ◽  
pp. 225-230
Author(s):  
Klavs Bender ◽  
Preben Østfeldt ◽  
Poul Kronborg
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Contingency Planning ◽  
Status Report ◽  
Base System ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
Oil Companies ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
Advanced Computer

ABSTRACT In 1986 an oil and gas concession in the Baltic Sea was granted by the Danish Ministry of Energy to a group of oil companies with Norsk Hydro as operator. In this connection, the company initiated a three-year research project in the area, covering the following subjects:The use and development of analytical methods for biomarkers, prior to any oil spill, to identify oil in marine sedimentsBaseline evaluation at 10 sediment stations within the concession area of certain defined heavy metals and hydrocarbonsSimulation of drift, spreading, and fate of oil slicks using advanced computer models calibrated for the Baltic Sea areaCoastal vulnerability mapping of resources and development of a computerized data base system for this information. This paper is a status report on the research, describing the goals achieved midway through the program.

OIL SPILL SORBENTS: TESTING PROTOCOL AND CERTIFICATION LISTING PROGRAM

1993 ◽  
Vol 1993 (1) ◽  
pp. 549-551 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Cooper ◽  
Ingvil Gausemel
Keyword(s):  
Oil Spill ◽  
Oil Spills ◽  
Petroleum Products ◽  
Test Methods ◽  
Coast Guard ◽  
National Standard ◽  
Laboratory Evaluation ◽  
Management Service ◽  
Environment Canada ◽  
Operating Characteristics

ABSTRACT Environment Canada's Emergencies Engineering Division is spearheading a program in conjunction with the Canadian General Standards Board that would see the development of a certification and listing program in addition to a national standard for the testing of sorbent materials. Funding for this program is provided by Environment Canada (EC), Canadian Coast Guard (CCG), Marine Spill Response Corporation (MSRC), U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), and U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS). The test methods are based upon those defined by the American Society for Testing and Materials and previous test methods developed by Environment Canada for our series of reports entitled Selection Criteria and Laboratory Evaluation of Oil Spill Sorbents. This series, which was started in 1975, encompasses a number of commercially available oil spill sorbents tested with different petroleum products and hydrocarbon solvents. The testing program will categorize the sorbents according to their operating characteristics. The main categories are oil spills on water, oil spills on land, and industrial use. The characteristics we will be evaluating with the new test protocols include initial and maximum sorption capacities, water pickup, buoyancy, reuse potential, retention profile, disintegration (material integrity), and ease of application and retrieval. In the near future we plan to incorporate changes to the test that would involve increasing our list of test liquids to encompass spills in an industrial setting, in addition to testing sorbent booms and addressing the disposal problem.

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